Promoting a 50/50 Gender Balance by 2020

A Historical Perspective On Women In Leadership

February 15, 2014

In 1934, Lettie Pate Whitehead becomes the first American woman to serve as a director of a major corporation, The Coca-Cola Company. Pictured here with president Robert Woodruff.

To put help gender balance in perspective, we’ve put together an overview of key moments throughout history that have signalled significant firsts for women. It also shows what some women achieved over 80 years ago. There’s no good reason why this can’t happen again.

Academics:

Data in the last twenty years shows the general trend of girls outperforming boys in academic achievement in terms of class grades across all subjects and college graduation rates, but boys scoring higher on standardized tests and being better represented in the higher-paying and more prestigious STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math).

In 2005/2006, women earned 62% of Associate’s degrees, 58% of Bachelor’s degrees, 60.0% of Master’s degrees, and 48.9% of Doctorates.

(Source: Nces.ed.gov. Retrieved April 24, 2012.)

In 2016/2017, women are projected to earn 64.2% of Associate’s degrees, 59.9% of Bachelor’s degrees, 62.9% of Master’s degrees, and 55.5% of Doctorates.

(Source: Degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by level of degree and sex of student: Selected years, 1869-70 through 2016-17)

In 2007, Harvard University named Drew Gilpin Faust its first woman president in the school’s 371-year history.

Some 38% of women ages 25-32 now hold bachelor’s degrees, compared with 31% of young men. As a result, 49% of employed workers with at least a bachelor’s degree last year were women, up from 36% in 1980. That means more women in higher-skilled, higher-paying positions.

The current ratio of hourly earnings for young women to young men, now at 93%, is up from 67% in 1980 and is the highest in government records dating back to at least 1979. Across all age groups, the median hourly wage for women last year was 84% as much as men – $14.90 vs. $17.79, up from 64% in 1980.

At the same time, the Pew study indicates that a woman’s job advancement often will hit a ceiling, due in part to competing demands of work and family. Women remain twice as likely as men to work part-time and are more likely to take significant time off from employment during their lives to care for children or other family members.

Among young women, 59% say that being a working parent makes it harder to advance in a job or career, compared with just 19% of young men. Across all age groups, 22% of women and 9% of men report having quit jobs for family reasons at some point during their working lives.

Source: The Pew study was based on interviews with 2,002 adults by cellphone or landline from Oct. 7-27. The Pew poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

Government:

Frances Perkins becomes the first female member of a Presidential cabinet in 1933. Perkins, a sociologist and Progressive reformer in New York, served as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor. She kept her job until 1945. In 2014, three women serve on the President’s Cabinet:

Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker

President Ronald Reagan nominates Sandra Day O’Connor to be the first woman on the Supreme Court, 1981. On August 7, 2010, Justice Elena Kagan became the 112th justice to serve on the Court. In all, four women have served on the Supreme Court.

In 1997, Madeleine K. Albright was sworn in as the United States’ 64th Secretary of State. She was the first woman to hold that job, which made her the highest-ranking woman in the federal government’s history. In 2004, Condoleezza Rice became the second woman–and first African-American woman to hold the job. Five years later, in January 2009, the former Senator (and First Lady) Hillary Rodham Clinton became the third female Secretary of State. There have been a total of sixty-eight Secretaries of State.

In 1916, Jeannette Rankin, of Montana, is the first woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 1922, he first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate was Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia. Sworn in on November 21, 1922, the 87-year-old’s term in office lasted only one day. The wife of former U.S. Representative William Henry Felton, she had a background in politics and civic affairs.

In 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to serve as governor of a state, in Wyoming. In the fall of 1924 she was elected to succeed her deceased husband, William Bradford Ross. (Miriam Amanda “Ma” Ferguson is inaugurated governor of Texas days later.)

In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro is the first woman to run for vice-president on a major party ticket.

2007: Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) becomes the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Currently there are ninety women in Congress. Seventy-three are serving in the House of Representatives and seventeen are in the Senate. Out of all the women that have ever been elected to Congress, 32.5 percent, or approximately one-third, are in office today.

2008: Hillary Clinton wins the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, becoming the first woman in U.S. history to win a presidential primary contest.

2008: Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, becomes the first woman to run for vice president on the Republican ticket.

2005: Angela Merkel, Chancellor, Germany. The world’s most powerful woman is the backbone of the 27-member European Union and carries the fate of the euro on her shoulders. Fresh off a commanding reelection in September 2013, she has served as ­Chancellor of Germany since 2005; the first woman in the position. (Source: Forbes Magazine)

Business/Executive/Finance:

In 1934, Lettie Pate Whitehead becomes the first American woman to serve as a director of a major corporation, The Coca-Cola Company.

In 1967, Muriel “Mickey” Siebert becomes the first woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and the first woman to head one of its member firms.

In 1972, Juanita Kreps becomes the first woman director of the New York Stock Exchange. In 1977 she became the first woman appointed Secretary of Commerce.

In January 2014, the Senate confirms Janet Yellen as the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve Board. She is the first woman to hold the position.

Christine Lagarde, IMF chief: The first woman to run the 188-country financial organization has spent much of her first two years on the job battling the debt crisis in Europe and calling for ailing global economies to accelerate steps for stable growth. Her push for debt-sharing between EU nations and an increase in rescue funds has faced resistance from Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany. French-born Lagarde was a labor and antitrust attorney in the U.S. before a six-year stint as French finance minister; rumor has it she may make a run for the French presidency. Most recently, Lagarde issued a stark warning to the U.S., urging it to raise its congressionally-mandated debt ceiling. (Source: Forbes Magazine)

Cultural:

In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman ever to win an Academy Award as best director. She claimed the Oscar for her 2009 Iraq War movie The Hurt Locker.

NASA:

Jerrie Cobb is the first woman in the U.S. to undergo astronaut testing. NASA, however, cancels the women’s program in 1963. It is not until 1983 that an American woman gets sent into space.

2007: Dr. Peggy Whitson, an American astronaut, becomes the first woman to command the International Space Station.

NGOs:

Melinda Gates: The Gates Foundation gave away $3.4 billion last year, the vast majority to global health programs, and has made more than $26 billion in grant commitments since the Foundation’s 2000 founding.

Judith Rodin: At the helm of the 100-year-old Rockefeller Foundation for the past 8 years, Judith Rodin oversees programs that tackle a menu of the most pressing global issues, from climate change and health to high-impact micro-investing. The first female president of the philanthropic organization (and first female president of an Ivy League), Rodin is responsible for $171 million in charitable contributions last year.

Margaret Chan, Director-General of World Health Organization: Now in her second term as leader of the World Health Organization, Chan is the most powerful person in global public health and the only person with the authority to call a worldwide pandemic. Her advice on drugs and treatments direct countries battling major diseases and viruses like malaria and HIV/AIDS

Ertharin Cousin, World Food Programme Executive Director: Cousin fed over 97 million people this year. In April 2012 she landed as executive director of the world’s largest humanitarian organization with $3.92 billion in contributions. In her first year on the job Cousin and her staff of 13,000 focused on fighting hunger brought on by drought in West Africa and civil war in Syria. Her agenda for the rest for the year is to transition from food aid to food assistance in an attempt to shift from handouts to self-sustenance. 2013 SPOTLIGHT: Pointed to climate change as a “game changer” that “increases the vulnerability of the hungry poor.”

(Source: Forbes List of 100 Most Powerful Women)

Religion:

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, and Takawel Karman, joint recipients of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. Each of the Nobel Peace Prize winners this year demonstrated a tireless commitment to peace inspired by their faith. In addition to this joint accolade, each woman is accomplished in her own right.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a committed Methodist, is the president of Liberia and the first female head of state on the African continent.

Leymah Gbowee, a practicing Lutheran, helped lead peaceful protests during Liberia’s second Civil War and has been an important player in the post-war reconciliation process.

Takawei Karman, a Muslim journalist from Yemen, helped organize the 2011 Yemeni uprising, which became part of the larger movement for peace and democracy, dubbed the “Arab Spring.” Coming from countries where religion has historically been used as a tool of persecution and suppression, these women used it as a catalyst for change.